"She was a beautiful girl," said Lace's mother Carol Lace, of Stuart, on Monday. "She had three beautiful babies. And you know, I don’t know how tell her children."

Born in Neptune, New Jersey, Lace spent her childhood in Jackson, New Jersey before moving to Florida when she was 15, Carol Lace said.

A former cheerleader, she was "outgoing" and "had lots of friends," her mom said. Eventually, a devastating drug addiction took over Alexis' life and "she did things to take care of her drug habit," Carole Lace said.

"She got hooked up with the wrong people and drugs overpowered the sweet girl that she was," Carol Lace said.

Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office records show that Alexis Lace had been arrested four times since February. In June, she was arrested and charged with prostitution.

On Monday, Carol Lace said she was not doing well and that family members were planning a memorial service for Alexis.

"I just want everybody to remember that she was a fallen angel," Carol Lace said.

According to the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office: Farina told investigators he met an unidentified woman on the street and hired her for oral sex. The pair returned to his apartment in the 100 block of Foresteria Drive, where they smoked marijuana and discussed buying prescription pills.

The conversation turned into an argument, however, when the woman wanted him to pay for the pills, Farina claimed. He told authorities she found a kitchen knife and pointed at him. As the two struggled over the knife, he grabbed another one and stabbed her in the neck, causing her to bleed profusely.

When she tried to stab him again, Farina told police he overpowered her and slashed her neck and continued stabbing her as she thrashed about "in order to keep her away from him," the sheriff's account states.

The lacerations were so severe they nearly caused "a full detachment to her head," according to the probable cause affidavit in the case. Her scalp was also cut.

A neighbor called police after hearing someone in an upstairs apartment "getting slammed around" and "yelling for help."

Police found two kitchen knives near the body. A wash cloth had been placed over the woman's neck and a bottle of bleach and other cleaning agents were discovered near her.

Farina first alleged that an unknown man entered the apartment through a back door and attacked the victim as he escaped out the front door but later admitted he was lying, the sheriff's report states.